User specific design customization for 3D printing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9895841-B2
Application number	US-201514701362-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2015
Priority date	May 9, 2014
Publication date	Feb 20, 2018
Grant date	Feb 20, 2018

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining 3D printing customizations for a user. One of the methods includes receiving data indicating a selection of a product design by a user for creation of a three-dimensional product that includes a plurality of attributes, determining a style which includes values for some of the plurality of attributes and that is associated with the user, for each of the plurality of attributes determining whether the style includes a value for the respective attribute, and upon determining that the style includes a value for the respective attribute, customizing the product design using the value for the respective attribute, or upon determining that the style does not include a value for the respective attribute, customizing the product design using a default value for the respective attribute, and providing data for the customized product design for the three-dimensional product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
storing a product design in a database, wherein the product design comprises a customization vector for a customizable attribute of the product design, wherein the customization vector includes two or more customizable attributes including the customizable attribute;
storing style data representing a style in a style database, wherein the style data comprises values for each of two or more style attributes, including a style attribute, which are usable to customize different types of products, wherein storing the style data representing the style includes storing style data for each of the two or more style attributes including the style data for the style attribute;
storing an identifier of a user in a user database that associates the user with the style;
receiving data indicating selection of the product design by the user after storing the identifier of the user in the user database that associates the user with the style;
determining, using the identifier of the user, to apply the style, from multiple styles in the style database, to the product design;
in response to determining to apply the style to the product design, determining that the customizable attribute and the style attribute are the same attribute;
creating a user-specific design by modifying values of the customization vector of the product design using the style data in response to determining that the customizable attribute and the style attribute are the same attribute, wherein modifying the customization vector comprises, for each of the two or more customizable attributes:
matching the customizable attribute for the customization vector to the corresponding style data for the corresponding style attribute in the style; and
applying the matched style data to the customizable attribute for the customization vector to create the user-specific design; and

providing data representing the user-specific design for display.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the customization vector comprises a particular customizable attribute with multiple allowable options; and
matching the customizable attribute from the customization vector to the corresponding style data for the style comprises selecting one of the allowable options for the particular customizable attribute that is a best fit using the style.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining an intended function for a product having the product design, wherein:
the style data includes multiple sets of style data for a particular style attribute; and
matching the customizable attribute from the customization vector to the corresponding style data for the style comprises selecting one of the sets of style data for the particular style attribute that is a best fit for the customizable attribute using the customization vector, the intended function, and the style data.

4. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
receiving data indicating a selection of a product design by a user for creation of a three-dimensional product that includes a plurality of attributes;
determining a style which includes values for some of the plurality of attributes and that is associated with the user;
for each of the plurality of attributes:
determining whether the style includes a value for the respective attribute; and
upon determining that the style includes a value for the respective attribute, customizing the product design using the value for the respective attribute; or
upon determining that the style does not include a value for the respective attribute, customizing the product design using a default value for the respective attribute, the default value being specified by the product design;

for each rule in the style:
determining whether a context for the rule applies to the product design; and
upon determining that the context for the rule does not apply to the product design, not customizing the product design using the rule; or
upon determining that the context for the rule applies to the product design:
determining whether the rule conflicts with a product design rule specified in the product design; and
upon determining that the rule does not conflict with a product design rule specified in the product design, customizing the product design using the rule; or
upon determining that the rule conflicts with a product design rule specified in the product design, not customizing the product design using the rule; and

providing, as output, data for the customized product design for the three-dimensional product.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein customizing the product design using the value for the respective attribute comprises modifying a customization vector defined in the product design using the value for the respective attribute.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein providing, as output, data for the customized product design for the three-dimensional product comprises sending instructions to a manufacturing device requesting creation of the three-dimensional product using the customized product design.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 4 , the operations comprising:
generating a feature hierarchy that ranks the attributes in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority; and
customizing the product design using a value for a higher priority attribute before determining whether the style includes a value for a lower priority attribute.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein generating the feature hierarchy that ranks the attributes in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority comprises generating a feature hierarchy that ranks attribute values in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein generating the feature hierarchy that ranks the attributes in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority comprises generating a feature hierarchy that ranks the attributes in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority using the product design.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein generating the feature hierarchy that ranks the attributes in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority comprises generating a feature hierarchy that ranks the attributes in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority using the style.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein generating the feature hierarchy that ranks the attributes in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority comprises generating a feature hierarchy that ranks the attributes in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority using the product design and the style.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein generating the feature hierarchy that ranks the attributes in the product design from highest priority to lowest priority using the product design and the style comprises applying weights to attribute ratings to generate the feature hierarchy.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein applying the weights to attribute ratings to generate the feature hierarchy comprises applying greater weights to attribute ratings from the product design and lower weights to the attribute ratings from the style to cause the attribute ratings from the product design to have more influence on the feature hierarchy than the attribute ratings from the style.

Assignees

• Autodesk Inc

Inventors

• Page James Sherwood

Classifications

• G06F30/00

  Computer-aided design [CAD] · CPC title

• G06Q30/06

  Buying, selling or leasing transactions · CPC title

• G06Q30/0635

  replenishment orders; recurring orders · CPC title

• B33Y50/00

  Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing · CPC title

• B29C67/00 Primary

  Shaping techniques not covered by groups B29C39/00 - B29C65/00, B29C70/00 or B29C73/00 · CPC title